Question from "A Beautiful Mind" (book)

[Andy_L]

In Sylvia Nasar’s “A Beautiful Mind” she notes that John Nash’s second son was referred to by Nash as “Baby Epsilon” which she says is “a tongue-in-cheek reference to a well-known mathematical anecdote about a famous mathematician who believes that all infants are born knowing the proof of the Riemann hypothesis and retain that knowledge until they are six months of age.”

Has anyone heard of this “mathematical anecdote”? It seems more likely to me that “Baby Epsilon” is just a reference to the common use of “epsilon” in mathematics to refer to a very small quantity.

[Thudlow_Boink]

I’d be willing to guess that the “famous mathematician” is Paul Erdős. He’s well known for referring to children as “epsilons.” I can’t remember seeing/hearing the particular “well-known mathematical anecdote” you refer to (though I did read A Beautiful Mind, years ago, so I must have at least run across it there), but it sounds like something Erdos would say.

[Andy_L]

@Thudlow_Boink

I’d be willing to guess that the “famous mathematician” is Paul Erdős. He’s well known for referring to children as “epsilons.” I can’t remember seeing/hearing the particular “well-known mathematical anecdote” you refer to (though I did read A Beautiful Mind, years ago, so I must have at least run across it there), but it sounds like something Erdos would say.

Thanks.